Fan Setup Suggestions

[Turmoil]

I am working on achieving the maximum air cooling possible for my PC right now. My case is an NZXT Tempest 410 Elite. This case offers the following fan options:

2x 120mm Fans on Top

1x 120mm Fan In Rear

1x 120mm Fan on Bottom

2x 120mm Fan in Front

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Today I'll be receiving 4 fans. I have done some research by myself and found that it seems the best set up for these is to use the bottom fan and two front fans as intake fans and then use the top two and rear fans as exhaust fans. Is this the setup you would recommend?

Also, the fans I am using are the Corsair AF120 series. High performance fans with a pretty high price tag (for fans, that is). Any thoughts on these fans?

 

[I'm your huckleberry]

Yes, that setup sounds best. I would put the new fans in front as they are likely the ones that will move the most air. It is best to have more air intake from fans than you push out through the exhaust or you will pull a lot of dust in through other areas where there are no dust filters (assuming you have dust filters on that case).

 

[Turmoil]

I have finally received my items and finished my little upgrade project. As far as cooling goes, this is the setup I will have in two days (because some fans needed to be mixed and matched and I am waiting for more fans to arrive)

2x Corsair AF120 High Peformance Edition Fans as intake in the front of case.

1x Corsair AF120 High Performance Edition as intake in bottom of case.

2x Corsair AF120 High Performance Edition as exhaust on top of case.

1x Corsair AF120 High Performance Edition as exhaust on rear of case.

CoolerMaster Evo 212 heatsink installed on CPU. Added my own Corsair SP120 and set up in a push-pull configuration exhausting directly to the rear exhaust fan.

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As of now, I have some fans in the wrong position for their specialities (a static pressure fan on bottom) as I wait for my other fans to arrive, however, I am already experiencing extreme drops in temperature. While normally idling at 45-50 degrees celcius, I now idle at around 28-32 degrees celcius.

Not to mention, I have all of the fans controlled by the NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller. I'll post some pictures of my updated rig when the rest of my items arrive.

One thing that I am not sure about is if I should be placing SP120 (Static Pressure fans) in the front of my case as I do have a dust filter infront of these fans.

 

[Ratfire]

A good rule of thumb is to have equal or greater outflow than inflow, as if you have higher Cubic Feet per Minute blowing into your computer than exhuasting out, you tend to get higher amounts of dust buildup as some particles settle before the air is able to be moved out of your case.

This should be a little easier for you to manage since it looks like you purchased the same fan model, so you don't have to worry about sorting out each individual fan's airflow unless you set them to different speeds.

The High Static Pressure fans generally only mean they're able to push a higher amount of CFM , or that the fan motor is rated to work against a higher level of resistance (think how it feels when blowing through a straw as hard as you can vs just blowing in the wind)

These are usually best suited for an application where they're pushing or pulling against greater resistance, like a dust filter or a heat sink, instead of just blowing in or out of a case.

 

[Turmoil]

The rest of my fans came yesterday. Got everything set up to go and my air cooling "system" is finally complete 100 percent. Here is the set up and below some pictures (couldn't do any better than the iPod Touch quality, sorry!).

Front: 2x Corsair AF120 Performance Edition (P.E.) 120mm Intake Fans

Bottom: 1x Corsair AF120 P.E. 120mm Intake Fan

Top: 2x Corsair AF120 P.E. 120mm Exhaust Fans

Rear:1x Corsair AF120 P.E. 120mm Exhaust Fan

Heat Sink: Coolermaster Evo 212 Heatsink - Replaced included fan and added extra fan:
2x Corsair SP120 (Static Pressure) P.E. 120mm Fans set up in Push/Pull configuration.

 

[pillar]

Must say, that setup is really clean! However, itll be hard to put in more memory in the future as that 1 fan will have to be removed in the future (unless the height of the heatsink is high enough that the memory below it wont cause touching issues).

Just something to consider in the upcoming future.

 

[Turmoil]

Must say, that setup is really clean! However, itll be hard to put in more memory in the future as that 1 fan will have to be removed in the future (unless the height of the heatsink is high enough that the memory below it wont cause touching issues).

Just something to consider in the upcoming future.

Yep I see what you are talking about. The fan is in fact high enough, though. I would just need to remove the fan temporarily to install memory under it. Luckily the fan just clips off, takes about 10 seconds to remove so that shouldn't be a problem.

Either way, with 8 gigs at 1600 I don't think I'll be upgrading RAM any time soon.